RALEIGH - The Wake County Board of Education has named Dr. Jim Merrill as the next superintendent of schools. Merrill currently leads the Virginia Beach school system, but worked as associate superintendent in Wake County for 16 years.

“I have very positive numbers from my time in Wake County. I think a lot of my education and philosophy and my sense of what’s right for kids carried from my years in that county and I took that with me to other places.”

Merrill was approved Tuesday in a 7-2 vote. He says he’ll lean on his experience but solicit advice as well. “I had in my career things that I know work, things that we need to do for kids…But it’s presumptuous of me to come and say ‘I’ve got the answer, we need to do this.’”

He says he’ll begin his tenure by meeting individually with each school board member and getting reacquainted with the district by visiting year-round schools after he starts the new job on August first.